The Global Sumud Flotilla activists are still present on board the Alma in Greek territorial waters. The drone attack on the ships, which is heading towards Gaza on Wednesday, is not anticipated to be the last. It is heading to the Palestinian-occupied area.
A larger Israeli attack is anticipated as the flotilla, which is currently moving through Greek territorial waters, approaches Gaza.
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Yasemin Acar, a 38-year-old German-Turkish member on the steering committee of the Global Sumud Flotilla, said, “What happened was yet another war crime committed against civilians, against a humanitarian mission.”
Acar has previous experience intercepting Israel’s Madleen flotilla in June and is skilled in locating drones and assessing security risks. Acar and the rest of the crew were detained before Israel deported them.
Drone attack
Prior to Wednesday’s attack, the flotilla had already been on high alert. While visiting a Tunisian port earlier in the month of September, Israel had repeatedly threatened to attack the ships being attacked.
That meant that Acar immediately instructed volunteers on board the flotilla to be “extra aware” once darkness set in when she noticed the reflections of three unidentified objects in the orange sky of sunset on Tuesday.
On Tuesday night, around 8 o’clock (17:00 GMT), drones were seen flying toward the Alma, one of the flotilla vessels. The activists on duty from that point on reported a rise in drones flying over the ship, with 15 total recorded throughout the night.
Problems with radio and internet communications were reported by 11 p.m. (GMT), laying the foundation for the attack.
All volunteers were instructed to get up, put on life jackets, and gather at the designated ship meeting point for further instructions. The sailboats’ lights swayed from side to side in the distance, making it visible from the Alma. The volunteers heard explosions and bursts of light above the sailboats.
As drones continued to fly low and attacked the sailboats, more explosions followed, and broken communications revealed the possibility of using chemicals.
According to a news release from the Global Sumud Flotilla, there were total of thirteen explosions reported throughout the night.
Yasemin Acar was previously a member of the Madleen flotilla that Israel boarded as it approached Gaza [Mauricio Morales/Al Jazeera]
Spirituality
Acar was able to provide the all-clear by dawn on Wednesday.
However, from here, things are only likely to become even riskier.
On Thursday, Israel once more threatened the flotilla. Israeli Foreign Ministry official Eden Bar Tal said that the flotilla was “serving Hamas” and that Israel would not permit any vessels to enter the active combat zone.
However, as Gaza gets closer to the island, Spain and Italy have sent navy ships to defend it.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares stated on Thursday that Spain had spoken with Ireland about the same subject and had spoken up with Belgium about helping citizens board the flotilla.
With the weekend’s of massive protests and port blockades in Italy, the pro-Palestinian movement is receiving more support than ever.
The final push of the flotilla’s final push, which many of the volunteers on board have been separated from their families, homes, and jobs for more than a month, leaves Gaza.
As the Israeli attack on Gaza City drags on, the genocide against the Palestinians continues in a vivid way despite the more than 65 000 killed, thousands of people still living in rubble, and hundreds dying of hunger.
However, the joy of sailing together again and seeing fellow volunteers on the horizon has restored some of the lost energy from the difficult and difficult journey.
Loose Women star Penny Lancaster has been in a relationship with Rod Stewart for more than 20 years and she looks back on their romance in her new memoir Someone Like Me
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Penny Lancaster has opened up about her relationship with Rod Stewart(Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images for Langan’s)
Sir Rod Stewart would do anything for wife Penny Lancaster – and over the years he has proved that time and time again. In her new book, Penny recalls how Rod quit drugs, U-turned on a vow not to have kids and even got down on the dodgy knee he damaged playing football to propose, when he had insisted he wouldn’t walk down the aisle again.
Penny, 54, says in her memoir she doesn’t like the phrase that she “tamed him” instead preferring to see Rod and their relationship as “nurtured”. But he has certainly mellowed during their 26 year relationship.
She was upset he had been photographed with Caprice Bourret in Summer 1999 after they had been on some dates, and Rod had been reduced to calling her daily to try to woo her back. While their relationship was still in its infancy Penny told Rod: “If you want to date all these women go ahead, but just so we’re clear it’s not for me.” After laying down more ground rules Rod replied quite: “Okay, lets give it go.”
READ MORE: Penny Lancaster shares heartbreaking baby admission as she praises ‘patient’ Rod StewartREAD MORE: Sir Rod Stewart scolds wife Penny Lancaster as she unveils marriage truths in new memoir
He then added: “But don’t think that you’re going to be the next Mrs Stewart. I don’t want to get married and I don’t want anymore babies.” Undaunted Penny then responded saying: “I’m happy to enjoy our time together, but just to let you know that at some point down the line, I will want to have a baby.” Rod hung his head and didn’t reply.
The relationship then continued but at a slow pace as Penny was finishing a photography diploma course at Barking College and Rod was on the road. But they managed a holiday to the Carribean.
Despite his reputation for being “as tight as two coats of paint” Rod surprised Penny by buying a whole wardrobe of clothes for her which were all hung up when she landed in Barbados. Penny recalls they were “all short dresses” as Rod was, and presumably still is, “a leg man”.
Other far flung holidays to the South of France continued their fun in the sun but Penny says initially she found their time in Los Angeles tricky as Rod’s home there had previously been shared with his former wife Rachel Hunter, and she and his kids from previous marriages were around and yet to fully warm to her. Rod has been married three times and has eight children.
“I found having to immerse myself in Rod’s complicated private life was not without its difficulties and tensions. His past relationships felt like a juggernaut thundering towards me.”
Thankfully over time this got easier and after Christmas with the Stewart clan in 1999 she had fully fallen in love with Rod. But as the years went by Penny knew she may have to end the relationship at some point if she wanted to have a family.
In September 2004 though Rod shocked her when they were chatting at their home by saying “Let’s make a baby”. She says her heart “skipped a beat” as at 33 she knew she needed to make a decision about her long term future soon, and had been wondering what to do at the crossroads in her life.
Rod was so serious he even gave up cocaine aged “almost 60” when they began trying for a child. Although his wild days were over, his “party routine” included recreational drugs and he dabbled on the “odd occasion”.
Penny writes: “Cocaine could make him distant and dismissive, and I didn’t like how it changed him. Now, if Rod and I were to plan a baby together, I didn’t consider it a choice that this aspect of Rod’s life could ever be in the mix.”
She didn’t think it could continue if they were to start a family and after a heart to heart Rod agreed to quit and said: “I want to be healthy, for us to stand the best chance.” Penny then fell pregnant in the run up to Christmas 2004 but sadly had a miscarriage days later. However in the Spring shortly before Penny turned 34, Rod proposed at the Eiffel Tower and she became pregnant around this time too.
“For christ sake say something Pen! I’m on my dodgy knee!” Was the funny line Rod pleaded as he proposed with Penny’s parents looking on during the emotional moment.
Alastair, 19, was born later in the year whilst his younger brother Aiden, 14, was the result of successful IVF. But that was not straightforward for the couple.
Rod refused to “do the deed” in the clinic which meant them delivering his test tubes of sperm via a speedy trips to clinic in his Ferrari down Rodeo Drive in LA. Rod also reluctantly ditched his trademark tight pants for boxers to stop his sperm overheating, but his sacrifices were small compared to his wife.
Looking back Penny describes the time as a “physical and emotional juggernaut” and she felt like a “human pincushion” with all the jabs that are needed. In the US there was “crushing disappointment” as two rounds failed so Penny tried again at IVF Clinic London and they eventually had baby joy after one of the three embryos they transferred lasted the distance and Penny was pregnant again.
After giving birth in February 2011 the family was complete. “Watching my boys grow up has given me so much happiness over the years, they are the sunshine in my day,” Penny writes.
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Last week Penny gave an interview to promote her new book Someone Like Me and revealed at the very start of their relationship in 1999, singer Rod wooed her during a tour of his Victorian Pre-Raphaelite art collection at his home in Essex. Penny momentarily reclined on his four-poster bed, and the rock icon leant down for a lingering ‘upside-down kiss’, which turned her “whole body” to jelly. Penny describes the new book as a reflection “upon my lessons in life, love and the importance in staying true to yourself through it all.”
Someone Like Me by Penny Lancaster is published by Bloomsbury and out now.
Annie Lennox, who is celebrating 50 years in showbiz, has re-released her hit single with all the money raised going to Palestinian-led organisations on the front line in Gaza
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Annie Lennox says seeing people being displaced in Gaza hit her hard
Trailblazing for 50 years, with her distinctive androgynous look and stunning voice, Annie Lennox is as cool and relevant today as she was when she burst onto the music scene in the 1970s with new wave band The Tourists.
Achieving worldwide success when she and Dave Stewart – her sometime romantic partner – then formed Eurythmics and she appeared in the 1983 music video for Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) wearing a man’s lounge suit and with orange cropped hair, she has been surprising people ever since.
A fabulously successful solo artist, she has now re-released her 1992 hit single Why? from her debut solo album Diva, in support of the charitable Together for Palestine fund.
Making some contribution to bringing peace to the Middle East is now her number one priority.
Mum to daughters Lola and Tali by her ex-husband, Israeli record producer Uri Fruchtmann, she says of the devastating conflict in Gaza: “I just want the war to end. Politicians are supposed to have dialogue and supposed to avoid conflict. We all know war is the most heinous destructive force on the planet, but I just want peace.
“When I saw the violence on October 7 two years ago it was shocking. I knew it was going to unleash the gates of hell. I believed something terrible was going to happen and we have all been watching it since. On your phone you can see day to day what is going on. I have seen the most horrendous things and I don’t want to see them again, ever.”
Every penny from Why? goes to Palestinian-led organisations at the frontline of the crisis, such as Taawon, Palestine Children’s Relief Fund and the Palestinian Medical Relief Society.
She says: “I have tried to contribute in my own way. I just want to see peace and see a ceasefire and see them stop killing men, women and children. Seeing people being displaced has hit me so hard.
“I have two daughters and their father is from Israel. Having children is the biggest change one can ever experience. I am so grateful for it. It made me a nicer person and it fulfilled me. You love them so much.”
She adds: “I will tell you why I speak up: because it is nothing to what these people have to endure.”
In London, to launch her new photographic memoir, Retrospective, documenting her incredible career – which has seen her win eight Brit awards, four Grammys, an Oscar, a Golden Globe plus multiple Ivor Novello song-writing awards – Annie, 70, says success nearly passed her by.
The tough-talking Scot, who was born in Aberdeen on Christmas Day 1954, says bosses at RCA Records could not understand what Eurythmics were all about when they formed in 1980.
She remembers: “We formed after our first band The Tourists split. We loved the name Eurythmics. As we loved being European and “rhythm” is in the name there. Nobody else got it but us.
“We really struggled but a new A&R man really loved us and said ‘Basically, there is only one band I am taking on’ and it was us. They let a lot of bands go, which was a shame, but it was good for us. If it had not had worked I thought I would have to go back to Scotland. Success takes you on these tremendous highs and it can take you down as well.”
The band’s debut single Never Gonna Cry only made it to No.63 in the charts. But just three years later, they broke through with their international bestselling single Love Is A Stranger, which peaked at No.2 in the UK.
The rest, as they say is history, as the band dominated the charts throughout the 80s with hits such as Sweet Dreams, Who’s That Girl?, Right By Your Side, Here Comes The Rain Again and Sexcrime.
Annie’s ferocious vocals were inimitable, while her crew cut orange hair immediately set a fashion trend for the start of the power dressing 80s.
But her role as a style icon was an accident.
“I had no idea the haircut would be iconic,” laughs Annie. “I guess Dave and I were on a mission.
“We had gone through so much. We had nothing to lose. I felt I had nothing to lose. It was only later that we understood what we had done. We were in the pursuit of excellence.
“We lived to make music. If you are going to pursue excellence that is what you have to do. You have to have a passion for it. The clothes gave us an identity. I guess we all have a sense of style.
“When you have the opportunity you go for it. They wanted us in Australia, Japan, Germany, Holland. France so we travelled a lot. We were always on the road.
“We were writing, recording, doing videos, performing and being exhausted after doing two hour shows, dancing, sweating and peeling off the leather at the end of the night.”
As well as travelling the world, the band found themselves in demand and soon recording with some of the biggest stars in the world, including soul queen Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder,who played harmonica on their 80s No.1 smash There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart).
But Annie remembers how Stevie kept them hanging on, saying: “He did keep us waiting in the studio. That is another story. But I sat on the floor in the studio in awe when he recorded with us. I remember his assistant put a bean bag around his head so his beads did not make any noise when we recorded.”
In awe of his talent, she adds: “It was intimidating and there you are with him, it was unbelievable.”
David Bowie inspired the same admiration, at the star studded Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium in 1992, held to honour the late Queen frontman a year after his death from AIDs.
“I sang Under Pressure with David, which he had done with Freddie. He did put his arm around me and you can see his thumb on my back in the photos. That is as close as we got, but that’s not bad is it? I was drawn to connect with him, not just stand next to him.
“I did not really know the song that well and when you take on a song you have to embody it. You have to really sing it over and over. I had to really get into that with David and the band which happened to be Queen. Singing it was a lot of pressure like ‘Under pressure…I am under pressure!’”
Despite selling over 75 million records, Annie confesses that fame still does not sit comfortably with her, saying: “Being famous is like having two heads. Like you have one on your shoulder like one is Annie and one is Annie Lennox. I want to be remembered for who I am and I am Annie.
“People do look at you. It ain’t an easy gig. I don’t mean like ‘Oh poor me’. I did not have any thoughts about fame when it first happened. It is not until you have found success that there are rules.
“I am just a normal person really. I am not starry starry or a ‘friend of the stars’. I am a shy, modest person. I like to be modest and I like the quality of modesty.”
For the foreseeable future, Annie plans to keep campaigning for change – continuing to use her unique voice and slogan T-shirts to get her message across on the world stage.
She says: “I wear T-shirts with slogans on because I don’t need fancy gowns. I don’t need any of that. I like to use my platform, you know.
“Whenever my time comes to pop my clogs and depart this earth I want to feel I did the best I could.”
Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor says one of the first questions she is often asked in job interviews is whether she can lead a top club while also being a mother.
Bompastor, who has four children, led Chelsea to a domestic treble last term.
When asked about a recent survey that found 78% of women had faced discrimination while working in football, Bompastor said she was “not surprised”.
“Guess what was almost the first question everyone is asking me when I want to become a head coach or a manager?” the 45-year-old said.
“So I’m going to tell you – ‘do you think it’s possible to be a mum of four kids and being a manager for a high club?’
“I think if you have a man in front of the same people, they will never ask that question.”
She added, laughing: “It wasn’t the case in Chelsea.”
A survey released on Wednesday by Women in Football said that discrimination for women working in the game was “persistent and widespread”.
It found that 63.5% of women working in football experienced sexist banter or jokes, while 56% said no action was taken after reporting gender-based discrimination in the workplace.
Bompastor added: “We still have room for improvement in that area, and I’m glad the people are honest and they are brave enough to raise that.”
Arsenal boss Renee Slegers, who was also asked about the survey, agreed “there is still a lot of work that needs to be done”.
A man is being detained by Ondo State Police Command operations who are alleged to be behind the state’s and four other neighboring states’ gun-producing and supplying operations with firearms.
According to reports, the suspect continued to trade illegally in Osun, Kogi, Edo, and Kwara States while also operating across state lines.
In connection with the armed robbery incident in Irele, where a woman was shot in her right leg, her unregistered TVS motorcycle, and other valuables, the suspect was arrested as a result of her arrest.
Olusola Ayanlade, the command’s spokesperson, made this disclosure in a statement released in Akure and made available to journalists.
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According to him, the suspect was apprehended after the police conducted further inquiries.
He added, “The arrest of this significant figure represents a significant step forward in the unraveling of the supply chain that has led to violent crimes like armed robberies and other unlawful activities in the area.”
Four suspects in the case have already been charged with attempting to kill a person with armed robbery, according to Ayanlade’s revelations, and have already been arraigned in court.
He continued, “We are working hard to find other fugitives in the syndicate” and “we must make sure that all collaborators are brought to justice.”
Adebowale Lawal, the state’s police commissioner, praised the officers who conducted the operation in his response.
He reassured the commander’s loyal followers of its unwavering commitment to public safety.
In Ondo State, criminals will not be able to hide. The CP stated that we will continue to pursue them, destroy their networks, and ensure that every community experience peace and security.
The Command urged citizens to continue to support the police by providing timely, reliable information that could aid in crime prevention.
The youngest and fifth president of Mozambique, Daniel Chapo, joins Centre Stage for a thought-provoking discussion about how to lead a divided society. Mozambique is facing the difficulties of a young democracy, which range from conflict and displacement to the need for inclusive development, fifty years after independence.
